VIEW POINTS
Visual literacy means the ability of a person to understand how context and culture contribute to a visual meaning (Blair & Almjeld, 2014). There is a variety of factors why this is important in today's world. For starters, it enables the viewer of the work to be able to come up with meaning of what he or she has seen. This is because visual literacy is responsible for the emotional or logical response after seeing something. For instance, the author relies on the visual literacy of the readers to be able to put his or her point across (Blair & Almjeld, 2014).
Another importance of visual literacy is because it can be argued that it has replaced or joined traditional grammars (Blair & Almjeld, 2014). The world has turned into a visual place, and it is, therefore, important for everybody to be visually literate to be able to grasp the meaning behind visual communications.
The image in question is of a woman wearing grey clothes stepping on the steps of stool with one leg higher than the other causing her skirt to rise further up her thigh. To interpret the meaning of the picture, one needs to look at the several rhetorical concepts. First is the arrangement; this is the organization of the components in the picture in order to determine their relationship (Blair & Almjeld, 2014). For the woman in the picture, she is wearing grey clothes stepping on the steps of stool with one leg higher than the other causing her skirt to rise further up her thigh. The top half of her body is not shown, therefore, the focus of the image is on the lower half and especially her thighs and legs. This enables the viewer not to lose focus on the product is trying to advertise.
Another rhetorical concept is the point of view (Blair & Almjeld, 2014). This is the way an image presents itself in order to give meaning. The shoes and the thighs of a woman in the picture are the centers of attention. Only the lower part of her body is shown, therefore, reducing the distractions that could be in her upper body. Her shoes, which are being advertised, are the centers of attention and therefore placed in sharp contrast with the rest of her legs. This further increases the focus of the audience.
The color palette of the picture also speaks a lot towards the message being put across. The woman dresses in a soft grey color which contrasts sharply with the shoes that are a shiny black color. The pose of the woman perched on the stood places focus on the appeal of the shoes.
The other image is that of a man and a woman in bed, the man is on top of the woman but instead of looking at her face, he is looking at the image of a car in a magazine placed on her face. The arrangement of the images shows the intimacy between the man and the woman. The proximity within which he is staring at the car also signifies intimacy.
The point of view of this image is straight at the picture. He is on top of the woman at the woman’s face is covered in the magazine that the man is staring at the magazine. The point of view makes it hard not to empathize with the man.
The color palette of the image speaks towards the visual image that is being portrayed (Wang, 1996). First, the man’s hair is black, a color that is often associated with suspicious characters. The color of the car that the man is staring at is red, a color that is usually associated with danger.
These images like most other advertisements have social associations that concern gender. Individually it is difficult for one to derive meaning from images (Blair & Almjeld, 2014). The arrangement of pictures and additional rhetorical components enable the viewer to interpret the images based on social constructs. First, the images portray a stereotypical view of women. This stereotype is one that shows women as objects that are supposed to perform a certain duty. This is especially the case in the second image of the woman with the magazine on top of her face. It also shows the image of how women are supposed to build a connection between advertisers and the male buyers. The second also portrays a woman in revealing clothing advertising shoes. This enables a connection between the viewer and the image. This is because images have the characteristic of being persuasive in that they enable the view to feel something.
The images are supposed to shock the viewer. They achieve this objective by taking normal routines and inserting aspects that are not expected by the viewer (Margolin, 2010). The first image of the woman in revealing clothes and black stiletto heels evokes lustful feelings from the viewer. The second image of the man on top of the woman with an image of the car causes evokes feelings of desire among the male viewers as is typically the case after a man sees a half-naked woman.
Using pathos, ethos and logos, one can determine that the first advertisement is for shoes and the second is for a car brand (Carter, 1998). Using pathos, the advertisers can invoke feelings of lust and desire form the images. The reader uses logos to see what product/ message the advertiser is try put across.
References
Blair, K., & Almjeld, J. (2014). CrossCurrents: cultures, communities, technologies. Boston, MA: Wadsworth, Cengage Learning.
Carter, K. N. (1998). Understanding advertisements. Upper Saddle River, N.J.: Globe Fearon Educational Publisher.
Margolin, V. (2010). The designed world: images, objects, environments (English ed.). Oxford: Berg Publishers.
Wang, D. (1996). Minimal sorts for interpreting pictures. Amsterdam, The Netherlands: Centrum voor Wiskunde en Informatica.
